Actress and director Regina King will present the third episode of the second half of Saturday Night LiveSeason 46 alongside musical guest Nathaniel Rateliff. The program managed to positively overcome the pandemic in the last two weekends with high quality episodes presented by The office star John Krasinski and Schitt’s CreekDan Levy, who had favorable performances.
Now, it’s King’s turn to start the weekend on a positive note.
Speaking of starting on a positive note, last week’s host, Dan Levy, was kind enough to leave an encouragement for King in his dressing room mirror. This episode will be marked as her debut on SNL, as well as for being recognized as the 14th black woman to present the sketch comedy show, joining the late Cecily Tyson, actress Halle Berry, comedian Tiffany Haddish and filmmaker Issa Rae. Rae was most recently the host on an October 2020 episode during the first half of the season.
King is no stranger to the screen. She voiced the lead role in the animated series Adult Swim, The Boondocks, and most recently can be seen on the HBO series, watchmakers, which earned him an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Film. Before the announcement of King’s performance, she was busy promoting her directorial debut, One night in Miami, a film that details a fictional encounter by Jim Brown, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Sam Cooke after Ali’s victory over Sonny Liston in February 1964. The film was released in December 2020 and earned him a Best Director nomination for Golden Globe Award film.
Will host Regina King be able to follow Saturday Night Live?
With Regina King usually found in more dramatic roles, I am interested in seeing how she behaves against a group of comedians. There is hope that she can recover from her time as Brenda Jenkins on the 1980s NBC sitcom 227. In her adult career, she appeared in a variety of comedy films, such as Friday, Daddy’s daytime center, legally blond 2: red, white and blond, and Miss Sympathy 2: armed and fabulous.
Multi-hyphenate fans will enjoy watching her jump from the heavy, politically oriented work she does watchmakers to the satirical and comical approaches to politics for which the SNL is famous. As we know, SNL has no problem addressing current events and King has not shied away from talking about hot topic issues, as seen here during a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last January. Judging from her many appearances on nightly talk shows, her sense of humor definitely shines and I believe she will be able to keep up with everything the show’s writers have in store.
Political impressions of Saturday Night Live were few and far between
During the end of the first half of the season, the public saw the end of a transition from the national administration to the start of a new one. Saturday Night Live took this up by making cast member Alex Moffat take on the impression of Joe Biden from comedian Jim Carrey. It would be nice to know that the program plans to use Moffat’s Biden in some way so that he can keep him updated if a major political event occurs and Biden’s “presence” at Studio 8H is necessary.
I am also interested to see how the SNL plans to face Trump’s impeachment trials or whether there is even a plan to fully resolve this. I would love to see even more references to current political events, mainly through more original characters at the “Weekend Update” table and outdoors.
Nathaniel Rateliff makes his debut on Saturday Night Live as the musical guest
The episode presented by Regina King will be the musical guest of Nathaniel Rateliff Saturday Night Live debut too.
The Denver folk artist obviously does not have a history of comic acting, but he has been a frequent musical guest on almost every evening talk show, making stops at OLate Late with James Corden, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and more recently Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Rateliff’s recent musical efforts include the release of his single “Redemption”, a song written for the film Apple + Original Palmer.
Her next gigs will definitely be a change from last week’s indie rock singer and songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, who sparked controversy after breaking her guitar at the end of her last gig on the show.
Although most musical guests tend to be seen only once or twice on stage, having seen him pass the night talk show circuit in the past five years, he seems to be a respected personality and I do not exclude him from being possibly spotted in the monologue or a pre-recorded sketch.
What are your predictions for this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live? Leave your opinion in the comments section below and be sure to come back with Last Night On for a complete recap of the best sketches.